The Damsel of Darien was published in
two volumes in 1839. Simms first mentioned
the story to James Lawson in a 2 September 1838 letter, revealing that he
“wrote during the first part of the summer some 150 pages of a new novel &
there it sticks.”[1] Simms informed Lawson in January of 1839 that
Damsel would be published with Lea
& Blanchard of Philadelphia, who would pay $1000 for a first edition of
3,000 copies; in the meantime, Simms was busy revising the “numerous errors of
history & geography” committed while composing the first volume of the story.[2] ...